I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, write me on Facebook or just email at paultassi(at)gmail(dot)com. I'm also almost finished with my sci-fi novel series, The Earthborn Trilogy.

The One-Sided Problem of Oversexualization in Video Games

I’ve been reading about this recent rather fantastic Twitter trend among the gaming crowd, #1reasonwhy, over the past few days. It was sparked by Luke Crane of Kickstarter who asked why there were so few female game developers in the industry.

That set off a chain of responses from many, many women working in the industry talking about hostile work conditions for women and countless other issues they face. There is no question that women are mistreated in the gaming industry both professionally and as players, and it must be put to an end for the medium to thrive and be taken seriously.

There’s one specific aspect of misogyny in gaming I want to discuss today, one that I think is not the best argument to make when we talk about issues like this. It’s the idea of the “oversexualization” of female characters in games. Potential female players are driven away from the medium by “sexy video game vixens,” and there’s a general idea that women are treated as sex objects in games much of the time. It’s an argument I saw used in the #1reasonwhy hashtag more than a few times, but I believe that it’s both incorrect and outdated. Hear me out.

Much time has been spent discussing the good examples of how powerful women have started to emerge in games, without overt sexuality attached to them. Faith of Mirror’s Edge, Samus Aran of Metroid, Alyx Vance of Half-Life, FemShep of Mass Effect. There’s progress being made there. But what I wanted to talk about today are the examples that everyone will point to. The “obviously” sexually charged women in games. It’s easy to see why they are viewed as sex objects much of the time, but I want to ask a counter-question:

Is it even possible for a male video game character to be a sex object?

It only seems fair to ask, and I’ll provide some examples of what I’m talking about here.

The “idealized hero form” is something that’s existed long before video games, originating in modern pop culture in the form of comic books. It’s a type of anatomy that represents the pinnacle of human perfection, and even extends far beyond what any flesh and blood humans are capable of building themselves into. It’s why the Justice League looks like this. The costumes may change over the years, but the body types do not:

The concept applies to gaming as well. Outside of create-a-character titles like Saints Row, you’re not going to find many heroes of either gender with a less than ideal body. The men are hulking with chiseled abs and broad shoulders. The women have flat stomachs and perfect breasts. These are the “ideal forms” of each of these characters. Yet only one of them is ever viewed sexually to outsiders, the women.

Let’s do some compare and contrast here. Here’s Soul Calibur, a game often critiqued for its oversexualized women. We have Misturugi, the shirtless Samurai warrior that would likely make many women swoon if he was a flesh and blood man. Then there’s Ivy, the pirate’s daughter whose chest seems to get larger with each new installment of the game while her clothing shrinks.

But what makes Ivy’s chest ridiculous while no one bats an eyelash and Misturugi’s head-sized biceps? Both are genetic mutants, by any stretch of the imagination, but one is sexual, and the other isn’t.

This circles around to the central point I’m trying to make. Men simply are not viewed as sexual objects in games, despite similarly preposterous anatomy.

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Thank you for this article. I came in expecting some of the usual white-knighting “portraying women in a sexual way in games made for and marketed to men makes you WORSE THAN HITLER” tripe but this was intelligent, and insightful. Thanks again.

I was just as outraged as the next person over the horrible things revealed in the #1reasonwhy tweets but something felt off. Thanks to you I know what it was. I was nodding my head through the entire article.

Harder to get more people nodding their heads on this, but the militant feminism that exists is a bigger problem than anything else, and egalitarians will never be equal as long as people keep identifying with these feminists.

Oversexualization is not really a problem, humanity needs to embrace its sexuality anyway, I’m basically finished with being a teenager and have spent a large part of the last decade feeling really awkward about being attracted to women anywhere, especially as a supporter of feminism. Until it dawned on me that sexuality is perfectly fine, and that I can be dazzled by the female form and feel fine about it, because the rights of woman and sex have nothing to do with each other. In fact I think that the argument against oversexualization in media is anti-feminist in itself, a human or character should be able to be presented in any way and be judged for the content of their character. Paul is right we need more strong feminine characters not vapid nuns.

It is a problem, however. I completely respect your point, I just don’t agree with it. There are two reasons I have for this really. First, It’s true that unrealistic body images of men are about as pervasive in the media as they are for women, it’s just not a problem in the same way. It’s a problem for women and not for men because these standards are actively used against us all the time. Modern society judges the worth of women based on our looks over our ability. Not to mention the character types for men is astronomically more diverse than for women. Mario is a short, middle aged, blue collar hero. Women? not even close. what the fat princess? Second, the chiseled jaw and enormous body

types are not there to titillate women. Though they may for some, true, but those characters weren’t created as sexual fantasies for women; they are sexual SELF IMAGE fantasies for men. Women in games, more or less, not a problem. Women cliche’s in games right now is. Thanks for your support though. These things should be talked about!

I completely respect your point, I just don’t agree with it. There are two reasons I have for this really. First, It’s true that unrealistic body images of men are about as pervasive in the media as they are for women, it’s just not a problem in the same way. It’s a problem for women and not for men because these standards are actively used against us all the time. Modern society judges the worth of women based on our looks over our ability. Not to mention the character types for men is astronomically more diverse than for women. Mario is a short, middle aged, blue collar hero. Women? not even close. what the fat princess? Second, the chiseled jaw and enormous body

types are not there to titillate women. Though they may for some, true, but those characters weren’t created as sexual fantasies for women; they are sexual SELF IMAGE fantasies for men. Women in games, more or less, not a problem. Women cliche’s in games right now is. Thanks for your support though. These things should be talked about!

I agree with the message of your article, Paul. I’d hate to use such a strong word, but the only term I can really use to describe it is hypocrisy. When female characters have a perfect physique prominently displayed, its sexist, but when that applies to male characters it apparently means nothing. I think part of that, however, isn’t malicious on the part of women who are offended by these cases. Western culture, and American culture in particular, has an unfortunate double-standard where women are criticized far more easily for expressing sexual desires. I don’t think it’s that these men aren’t objectified by women, but that females who state those desires openly run the risk of being called “easy,” along with several far more disparaging terms. Men lack that risk.

I also think a large number of complaints come from people who don’t play games. Lara Croft is as strong as any male character, and her physique was just a marketing ploy to men, who dominated the market when Tomb Raider was first released. Your examples of more recent games shying away from cleavage in their female characters helps demonstrate that as female gamers become a greater market force, oversexualization will decrease as it is viewed as less powerful a marketing allure for a broad audience.

For a long time, gaming was nearly considered a male-only and male-dominated market. As that changes, so too will character development in games. Economics and the desire of businesses to reach larger female demographics will help this more than any political action or outspoken protest.

At the same time, I do want to finish by saying that I do appreciate some sexualization in games. American culture places such a negative light on the human body, and shames anything that remotely resembles sexuality in so many cases, that for a form of media to exist that often has a little extra leeway on the subject makes me think there is room for western shaming to no longer dominate the culture. There are positive and negative ways to do this, but I would prefer a tasteful application of sex, romance, love, and lust to be portrayed in gaming than for it to be removed in the name of political correctness.